Birthday Poem

Come on, here we go again
We're ten years old, we can't complain
We've got our way
It's Saturday
A thinning line between work and play

Riding dirt-bikes in the rain
Star Wars cowboys robbing trains
Baseball cap
Treasure map
A thousand dirty pocket scraps

Gruesome creatures in dirty pools
Breaking all the golden rules
Live and learn
The f-word
Shotgun blasts ceramic birds

The bus stop early morning light
Rusty Taylor picks a fight
Running home
All alone
Ripped up jeans and bloody nose

Drunks leave cans at the dead-end street
A gang of urchins arrange a meet
Jump the fence
Try making sense
Of arrowheads in the present tense

A giant coffin full of wood
Coffee smelling kind of good
Mowing lawn
A quiet yawn
An evening spent, a childhood gone.


So COME ON!! Here we go, I say!
I turned twenty-seven years old today!
Grandma's bed
Shaven head
Come this Spring I'll probly be dead

My friends are all over the fucking place
We cross the country at a break-neck pace
Cigarettes
No regrets
Buy some boone's, we'll dream up the rest

Kim has got a wedding ring
Her husband doesn't know a thing
Of real life
(She's HIS wife)
They fight a lot but they look real nice

And big al moved back home again
He comes around every now and then
Gaming days
Role-playing haze
This "girlfriend" thing is just a phase

Jhasen - he still lives upstairs
He shoves some do's into his dares
He'll agree
(Not just with me)
Nods and smiles while he sips his tea

Nikki and Dan are married too
They live in an apartment built for two
Young and free
tmbg
Nikki drove for scott and me

Jeff and Nate are back in school
On the radio they play it cool
Doctors kids
Wacky grins
They live their lives on needles and pins

Jolivette is going out West
save the birds and pass a test
She's got a degree
(Quite unlike me)
And cleans us up when she is free

Michael is still sort of new
We've much to learn and much to do
We got time
It'll all be fine
Art from devastation is an uphill climb

Now Lori sure can plant a kiss
And Melissa is at the top of my list
Back at camp
(Not on the map)
We made a promise and ain't gone back

Then Tracey sort of came in late
But we made a place, it seemed like fate
Animal eyes
Vegetable lies
Her betty baked us breads and pies

Our cliffy is another story
He's outlived every category
Far-side look
(Mediocre cook?)
He'll always get himself off the hook

And Chris--now there's a story to tell
He'll invite you into his personal hell
philosophy
(Can't you see')
Then trail off into...well, you know what i mean

Our best boy Plakke has gone up north
Trading ideas back and forth
Casually quips
"Apocalypse"
Into conversation when the sermon slips

Initiate rob, and it all comes down
To the very worst thing--a psychotic clown
Nightmare song
It won't be long
And the world you know will all be gone

Sally plays a gentle hand
In this new life of falling sand
Forgive me, please
Siamese
And sisters not just there to tease

And Scotty, well...what can I say?
He's a best friend in every way
We do it all
Have a ball
There's always stories to tell and garbage to haul

"I love the friends I have gathered here"
Whiskey, Water, Wine and Beer
Mutant gang
Personal slang
Smoking it poor and living deranged

We'll all get together down at the beach
Around the fire, drinking bleach
Throw a fest
Acid test
The snake-eyed man will do the rest!!

SO COME ON!!! It's time to go get lost!!
We're wasting time with dreary thoughts
I'll love you best
Until my death
And then maybe you bastards will let me rest...



-dem bones-
--devoted editor and child--
2/3/1973 - who knows or cares

The mailbox is showing my bills overflowing
And while there’s nothing so special about this
They seem to come everyday and so I will pay
To keep my lifestyle sealed with a kiss

But today’s not the same, it’s the day I was given my name
But there’s nary a card within sight
The mailbox is empty as empty as can be
And that’s something that just isn’t right

No the phone didn’t ring and there’s nobody to sing
Nor a message left on the machine
The quiet’s too loud but I’m much too proud
To sit here and dream what I dream

So I got me some beer and I made my own cheer
And I offered me up a toast
“Here’s to the best and screw all the rest”
And continued on with my boast

As the beers went away I went looking to play
But nothing would come to my mind
Too drunk to think or even to drink
I went searching for something to find

But soon I got bored of still being ignored
And I went looking for something to do
And I pulled out a box then undid the locks
And my eyes misted over with dew

I pulled out the gun thinking I’d have me some fun
And squeezed a round off into the air
But it ricocheted down and all the way ‘round
Until it came to rest in my chair

So feeling quite lucky and just a bit plucky
I figured I’d tried it again
But the results weren’t the same and I say with some shame
This time it lodged in my brain

At first there’s no feeling but then I went reeling
Down the hallway towards the phone
The blood started dripping and I started tripping
And all I could make was a moan

My body went numb and I was feeling too dumb
To put up much of a fight
The thought of too many years and not enough tears
And things that just weren’t right

And as I lay on the floor with my head really sore
My life slowly ebbing away
The last thought in my head was something that said
“What a way to spend a birthday”

So Happy Birthday to me, I guess now you see
That bad things can happen real quick
People have to be there and at least pretend that they care
To keep me from being a dick